Sharmila Tagore has been a style icon for more than half a century. On her birthday,…

Sharmila Tagore is remembered as many things – silver screen legend with picture perfect smile, among others — but for us, it’s her inimitable style that is legendary. The veteran actor, who turns 74 on Saturday, December 8, has been a style icon for more than half a century. Sharmila bestowed an unprecedented stamp of cool upon chiffon sarees and bustiers and epitomised elegance with her high octane jewellery — the star was seldom seen without decorous diamonds or pearls.

Sharmila made winged eyeliner look understandably chic long before the term “cat eye” even existed. Apart from her signature eyeliner, Sharmila’s glamorous red lipstick made the star standout. Complete with a dramatic beehive, of course. Sharmila, famous for her lust-worthy locks, inspired decades of alluring beehive hairstyles; modern day A-list actors — Anushka Sharma’s Bombay Velvet hair looked familiar? — have copied Sharmila’s retro looks with voluminous waves, ponytails and high buns complete with cropped choppy fringe or a towering beehive.

By sporting a two-piece swimsuit in 1969 — she wore a bikini for a Filmfare magazine cover — Sharmila redefined the classic Bollywood aesthetic. Few could carry off glamour the way Sharmila did. The blue one-piece bathing suit she wore a half-century ago — for the 1967 film, An Evening In Paris — is still in style, and nobody rivals her ability to look effortlessly stylish and polished. Sharmila proved that the right to have fun with your clothes is not revoked after you get married or become a mother — a truth obvious enough in theory, but all too frequently lost in the wake of abundant misconceptions around ‘dressing your age’ or ‘dressing too sexy’. Sharmila married cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi in 1969 and gave birth to her first child, actor Saif Ali Khan, in 1970.

In her prime, Sharmila Tagore was considered one of the most versatile, glamorous and beautiful women in the Hindi film industry, and looking at the film stills of her ahead, it’s not hard to see why. However, no matter how much time passed, Sharmila never lost touch with the raw femininity that made her a star. She may no longer wear covetable outfits that hug her curves and embrace the spotlight, but Sharmila still commands attention with her confident style.

We could go on and on, but we think you’d rather get to admiring Sharmila and her utterly enduring style. In celebration of her 74th birthday, keep scrolling for proof that Sharmila Tagore’s style keeps getting better with time: